Tyler Gibb – Writer, Director, Editor, Filmmaker

I was recently invited to sit in on a casting session held by a colleague of mine. Always eager to get a glimpse at the talent pool without having to put on my own water wings I was happy to oblige.

The process went well and I think my friend got what he wanted; as I’ve said before, there’s a wealth of talent in this city.

On this particular occasion however the most memorable actor on the schedule – for me – was the guy who didn’t show up. See, while we sat there for fifteen minutes waiting for this guy I had occasion to reflect on the more important things that I could be doing with my time. I also did a little pondering about what would possess a person to simply not show up to an audition without so much as a call or an email or a text – it’s not like there aren’t ample modern tools at one’s disposal to facilitate the cancellation of an appointment. Especially an appointment with a potential employer. A potential employer in an industry of employers who share information with each other not only about the people who have been good to them but also about the people who have wasted their time.

Then the next actor arrived and we moved on.

It’s abundantly clear to me in times like this why talent agents and managers exist and why in fact they are a necessity. It’s sad really. I do think there is indeed a wealth of talent out there but I wonder just how much more talent there is that I’ll never find out about. Because you may be Meryl Streep but if you can’t even manage to get your pants on by yourself in the morning much less make it to an audition then the restaurant you’re waiting tables at better be fulfilling all your creative needs as well as have a great pension plan.

As a quick PS, I’ll add that if you’re a filmmaker holding an audition that wastes people’s time you should probably remember that actors love to share information too.

One of my personal motivational exercises is to make public announcements about upcoming projects slightly before I’m comfortable doing so. Being highly susceptible to the solvency of shame this normally lights the required fire under my beaker.

The last time I did this – in the form of a casting call – jumping the gun finally backfired on me as the project had to be postponed.

For this last reason I’ve been holding back a little bit on some recent news, but what the hell, right? See, I was recently able to pair myself with someone who’s passion for producing matches my own for creating (and I use those terms interchangeably). We’ve been working on a new project. And it would seem that this producer and I have managed to secure the first step toward financing our film. This first step comes courtesy Telefilm Canada. Bless socialism. I promise to do our tax dollars proud.

The project is called Lion & Gazelle.

That’s all you get for now

So there it is. Consider the fire lit.

Right now the film industry is in a massive upheaval. Or so I hear. Movie stars aren’t getting paid what they used to, low-budget indies are raking in more than would-be blockbusters and the mainstay distribution model is about to sail into a shitstorm.

Now whether this impending distribution doomdom is the reason for the following observation or not, I can not tell for sure. This is because I’m relatively new at this sort of thing and don’t presume to know what is the norm. Regardless, the observation is as follows: There seem to be an awful lot of unqualified opportunistic hunters out there right now in the form of sales reps.

Briefly, a sales rep is an agent (requiring no qualifications other than to announce to you that s/he is a sales rep) who represents your film to distributors often in film market situations. I was once cautioned by a veteran film producer to avoid sales reps at all costs. Feeling ill equipped to handle my project on my own I ignored this advice and wound up flushing away a year’s worth of time by allowing someone even less equipped than myself to (mis)represent my project.

Taking what I could from a bad situation I now possess a weariness for this breed of huckster. And this weariness has served me well in recent times as a matter of fact. Beyond even the no-brainer deleted email solicitations. The time, for instance, a sales rep called me to tell me he’d see my film at a festival market and would love to represent it. Well, he said, I saw most of your film. Not all of it. But what I did see was really good. Remind me what it was about? I had to watch a lot of films at that market…

Another sale agent who had also seen my film (presumably) wanted to meet to discuss representing it. Skeptical as I’ve become I thought I’d test this campaigner by seeing how far she’d travel to meet with me. One block? Two blocks? Across town? As it turned out, not far enough. A simple test that told me exactly what I needed to know about this person’s level of interest and dedication.

Opportunists. The bad kind. These are people who don’t care about your project or about you. They care about having a roster of titles in their portfolio to justify their existence, their accreditation to film markets. If I’m going to hire someone to represent me, my work, then that person better love that work. They better be ready to fight for that work. And they sure as hell better be willing to cross the street for it.

In whatever new landscape the entertainment industry takes I think these opportunists are going to feast on the chaos for a while to come. So be vigilant! It’s flattering when someone tells you they want to represent you film but it’s not a good enough reason to let them do so. An agent is someone who acts on your behalf, your best interest, so accept nothing less than a champion of your work.

Went to a thing the other night. A shin dig of local film people. There were name tags involved. Little “Hello, My Name is…” stickers that allow you the rare freedom of gazing at women’s chests all night without fear of getting caught in a glance.

The stickers posed a bit of quandary for me. In addition to our names it was suggested that we write our profession on our tag. This was presumably so that others might introduce themselves if they thought we could be of some benefit to them. Being that I would probably have had to line up three tags one below the other in order to enumerate my list of recent positions I wasn’t sure what to write.

As a bit of a self-starter I tend to do a lot of writing since that’s where everything begins. But if I were to scribe “writer” on the tag at an industry party I may as well scribble “leper”. Next up would have been “director” but I’ve used that one in conversation before and it’s frightening how quickly the eyelashes start batting and the flirtation begins… And that’s just from the male actors. Then there’s “producer” but any conversation started on that postulation would be doomed to end in disappointment for the other person. I’m as much a producer as I am a professional lung operator; we all do what we have to to survive. What else? “Actor?” Well I kind of want to be taken somewhat seriously so that’s out. “Animator?” Yikes, see “leper” and add “with halitosis” to it. “Cinematographer”… Yeah, until someone asks me a technical question, then the jig is pretty much up.

In the end I went with “Tyler”. Except my lower-case “r” sort of came out looking like a “v”.

So, “Tylev”.

Yup. All that before I even got inside. I’m great at public gatherings.

We all do what we have to to survive.

Little rough around the edges, but sometimes you just have to go out and shoot!
PS. I fixed my DVD player with a screwdriver and a little Google… Not sure how that fits into the whole metaphor but you can draw your own conclusions.
– T